Early HCI

Human–computer interaction (HCI) researches the design and use of computer technology,
focusing particularly on the interfaces between people (users) and computers. Researchers in
the field of HCI both observe the ways in which humans interact with computers and design
technologies that let humans interact with computers in novel ways. As a field of research,
Human-Computer Interaction is situated at the intersection of computer science, behavioral
sciences, design, media studies, and several other fields of study.
HCI is about understanding and designing the relationships between people and computers. As
a field of study,it is amalgam of several scientific disciplines since the early ‘man-computer
symbiosis’ suggested by Licklider in 1960. The human side of HCI derived from physiology and
applied psychology, and in particular, from ergonomics (an applied science with close ties to
engineering and industrial applications). Ergonomics is essentially the design of equipment so
that its operation is within the capacities of the majority of people. Human factors is similar but
stems from the problems of designing equipment operable by humans within the limitation of
sensory-motor features (e.g. the design of flight displays and command-and-control
applications)

The situation today

We now view HCI design as looking past the simple interaction between user and
computer/technology (and beyond even computer-mediated interaction between people) to
involve wider social, cultural and aesthetic attitudes. Thus, by the mid-1990s designers and
‘design practice’ became the attitude of choice in HCI, emphasising practice-based approaches
at the expense of information-processing models of user behaviour. HCI now encompasses
many philosophies, perspectives and types of expertise. Different aspects of human–computer
interaction mean using and learning different techniques, depending on different goals.
Interaction Designers, HCI researchers and usability specialists now must be familiar with
design, engagement, the practice of technology design ethnography and theories of social action,
as well as with the more prosaic human and usability engineering techniques which have been
progressively developed since the inception of HCI as a discipline.

Interaction and design approaches

A design is a simplified representation of the desired outcome so one
approach to developing effective representations is to ask a set of questions:
• What do you want to create?
• What are your assumptions?
• What are your claims for what it will do?
• Will it achieve what you hope it will? If so, how?
Reasons for Design
The user interacts directly with hardware for the human input and output
such as displays, e.g. through a graphical user interface. The user interacts
with the computer over this software interface using the given input and
output (I/O) hardware. Software and hardware must be matched, so that
the processing of the user input is fast enough, the latency of the computer
output is not disruptive to the workflow
Experience-based design (see Figure 2.7) involves both the observation of,
and involvement in, users’ everyday working life (these techniques are
described in Chapter 3) in order to be able to represent what users’ activity
and response to the systems they use actually is.
Designing in an experience-centred way means that ‘the view of the human
in HCI becomes richer and more open once this point of view is adopted,
and it thus offers greater surplus and a richer potential with which to work
as designers.’18 As these authors identify, key landmarks are in:
◦ Valuing the whole person behind ‘the user’. ◦ Focusing on how people
make sense of their experiences.
◦ Seeing the designer and user as co-producers of experience.
◦ Seeing the person as part of a network of social (self-other) relationships
through which experience is co-constructed.
◦ Seeing the person as a concerned agent, imagining possibilities, making
creative choices, and acting. A number of influential authors have
described, with reference to how designers actually create designs, how
interface development can be seen as an issue in design, claiming that
multidisciplinary teams deal best with designing interfaces to systems with
a high level of information content or complex web sites, games, and data
visualisations.
This work created the idea of ID as bridging the boundary between
software interface design and media design. Others, more recently, have
argued that: ‘Designing for usability, which had been the primary objective
of HCI research and practice, was only one of the many values that User-
Centred Design could focus on. Designing for fun, enchantment, adventure,
and excitement were equally valid self-centred goals that were resonant
with the shift of emphasis from designing office- and work-oriented
products to designing for homebased, leisure, and entertainment products.’